No, Racial Preferences In The Military Don’t Improve National Security

Racial preferences compromise combat effectiveness, dilute merit, and are unfair.

Former officers criminally charged over arrest of 73-year-old dementia patient



Two former Colorado police officers have been criminally charged in connection with the arrest of a 73-year-old dementia patient last year, which landed the elderly woman in a hospital.

The woman, Karen Garner, had left a Walmart without paying for $13.88 worth of items, and the former members of the Loveland Police Department were later seen on surveillance footage laughing and joking about the incident.

What are the details?

Ex-cops Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali, the first two officers to arrive on scene in the June 2020 incident, both face multiple charges, according to The New York Daily News.

Hopp has been charged with two felonies, second-degree assault and attempt to influence a public servant, and a misdemeanor charge of first-degree official misconduct. Jalali has been charged with three misdemeanors: failure to perform the duty to report excessive use of force, failure to perform the duty to intervene in excessive use of force, and first-degree official misconduct.

Hopp was the arresting officer and first to arrive, finding Garner in a field picking flowers. Body camera footage shows him throwing Garner to the ground to handcuff her. Jalali arrived on the scene later, and video shows Garner being thrown against a patrol vehicle as officers push her left arm behind her back and up near her head.

Witnesses were also seen stopping to protest the officers' roughness with the elderly Garner, but officers dismissed their concerns.

Last month, video was released by the Garner family's attorney showing Hopp and Jalali laughing and joking about Garner's arrest as they held her detained in a cell at the station. Hopp could be heard telling his colleagues, "Ready for the pop? Listen to the pop," while watching video of Garner's arrest.

"What did you pop?" one officer asks Hopp, who replies, "I think it was her shoulder."

Officer Dalali can be seen laughing along with other officers at some points in the surveillance video, but eventually asks, "Can you stop it now?" covering her head while the bodycam footage plays.

She also states, "I hate this," before Hopp says, "I love it."

Dalali can also be seen checking in on Garner in her cell.

Both Hopp, Jalali, and a third officer were gone from the department soon after the surveillance video was released, Police Chief Robert Ticer announced.

According to a lawsuit against the department filed by Garner's family, the dementia patient did not receive medical assistance for six hours after the violent arrest, and was later found to have suffered a dislocated shoulder, a sprained wrist and a broken arm stemming from the incident.

She has also been moved from her home into an assisted care facility, which family members say was due to her dementia being exacerbated by the trauma she experienced during the arrest.

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Video released showing suspect shooting two Tulsa police officers — killing one — during routine traffic stop



A Tulsa County district judge ordered video footage released this week that shows two officers being shot by a suspect during a routine traffic stop that left one officer dead.

The footage is extremely graphic, and some authorities have condemned its release, but Judge William Musseman determined that the public has the right to see what exactly happened during the horrific traffic stop that occurred in June.

What are the details?

KWTV-TV reported on Monday that Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin held a news conference using slides and describing key parts of what happened after Officer Aurash Zarkeshan stopped convicted felon David Ware — who had expired tags, no driver's license and no proof of insurance — and Sgt. Craig Johnson responded to the stop on June 29.

Ware's attorney argued that parts of the original affidavit against his client were inaccurate, and that Ware was "painted in the worst light," according to the outlet.

Ware, 33, is currently awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder, drug possession with intent to distribute, and possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, the StarTribune reported. He scheduled to appear in court Oct. 5.

Franklin argued that the video footage should only be shown in a courtroom but released it at the judge's request. During Franklin's description of what happened, he noted, "Our officers gave more than 40 commands — 40 times they asked him to exit that vehicle before they used any type of force. Seven times [the suspect] was warned before he was 'tased.'"

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum (R) released a statement on the video suggesting, "If you do not have to watch this video for your job, don't watch it."

He added, "I have to watch a lot of body camera footage as part of my job. I can only think of two times in my life — upon the death of family members — when I wept like I did watching the conclusion of this video. It is terrible."

TheBlaze viewed the video, which was posted by TexAgs. It is graphic and extremely "disturbing," as the site describes. The footage shows the suspect refusing officers' repeated commands and arguing with them.

For several minutes, the officers pleaded with Ware to exit his car. Eventually, they deployed a Taser on him and thereafter used pepper spray in an effort to get him to comply. Finally, the officers tried to pry Ware out of the vehicle, and the suspect is then seen pulling out a firearm and firing several times, striking both officers.

Sgt. Johnson later died from his injuries and Officer Zarkeshan was critically injured.

TheBlaze's Jessica O'Donnell wrote on Twitter, "This is what [officers] face on a daily basis. Tasers and pepper spray often don't work. Remember this scene when you are quick to condemn officers in escalating situations."

Amy Swearer, a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, compiled a list of scenarios in a Twitter thread showing several other instances where officers were shot during traffic stops, saying those cases "flashed through [her] mind," after watching the video of Zarkeshan and Johnson's traffic stop.

"This matters," Swearer wrote. "I'm tired of people pretending that every police shooting victim is Breonna Taylor sleeping innocently in her bed. I'm tired of a one-sided conversation on policing where the civilian's actions aren't scrutinized, or the officer's legitimate fears acknowledged."

This writer's perspective

This writer remembers when an idol of hers — Officer Molly Bowden, whom she met at 4-H camp at the age of 12, was killed 15 years ago after being shot by a man during a routine traffic stop.

Bowden, 26, pulled over a vehicle driven by Richard Evans, 23, on Jan. 10, 2005, in Columbia, Missouri.

The Columbia Police Department reported:

[Bowden] was initially shot and wounded in the shoulder. As she retreated to the rear of the suspect's vehicle for cover, the suspect exited and shot her in the neck. After she fell to the ground, the suspect shot at her two more times, striking her in the neck again.

The following morning, the suspect shot and wounded a second Columbia officer who was staking out his mother's home. The suspect then committed suicide.

Officer Bowden eventually succumbed to her injuries one month later. Her end of watch was Feb. 10, 2005.